Add a briefing before the simulation

The briefing is an optional stage before the conversation: the learner attaches a document, answers your questions, or both, before they meet the character. It is the mirror of the debrief. Use it for preparation the conversation should build on, such as a CV for a job interview or an account plan for a negotiation, or for a short exam that tells the character where the learner is weak.

What the learner experiences

The briefing comes after the introduction. Once the learner has gone through the steps before the simulation, a Before you start screen opens. When the simulation lets the learner choose between text and voice, the briefing comes before that choice. The run's clock does not start until the briefing is done.
They answer and attach. The screen shows your questions, then the document upload, with what you asked them to upload. The upload lists its limits: PDF, Word (.docx), or text. Up to 5 MB and about 40,000 characters of text. A PDF can have up to 50 pages. A file over a limit is refused, never cut short, and a scanned document with no readable text is refused too. Under the upload the learner reads Only the text of your file is kept. It is sent to the AI provider to run this simulation and is deleted with it.
They move on to the conversation. If a required document is missing, they see Attach the requested document before you continue. From the text-or-voice choice, Back returns to the briefing so they can revise it. Once the conversation starts, the briefing can no longer change.

A learner who reaches the conversation without going through the introduction gets the same briefing as a dialog over the chat. The first message, and a voice call, wait until the briefing is submitted.

When the character does not read the briefing, the screen tells the learner so: Your own preparation for the conversation. The person you are about to talk to will not see it.

Turn it on

In the simulation editor, open the Briefing page (in the Simulation Display group, after Delivery Mode and Activity steps).
Switch on one part or both:
- Let the learner attach a document — then switch on Require a document if the learner cannot go on without one, and fill in What should the learner upload? (up to 2,000 characters). The learner reads it above the upload. Without Require a document, the upload is optional.
- Ask the learner questions — opens the same editor that forms use. New questions are required; you can change that on each question.
Click Save.

There is no separate switch for the briefing itself. It is on when the document upload is on or the questions hold at least one question, and off otherwise. Text and images in the form ask nothing, so they do not count. With questions switched on and none written, the page says No questions yet. Until you add one, or turn on the document upload, the learner sees no briefing.

For a briefing that is a document upload alone, switch Ask the learner questions off. That removes any questions you wrote, so Cesura asks you to confirm first.

The Activity steps timeline shows a Briefing marker above the Simulation marker, marked on or off, with a configure link to the Briefing page.

The briefing is off by default, and a simulation has at most one.

Exam questions

A single- or multiple-choice question with a correct answer is an exam question. Exam questions are graded privately, by topic, so give each one a Topic in the question's properties. The character is told only which topics the learner is weak or strong on, never the questions or the answers, and the learner does not see a score. A correct answer on any other type of question is ignored, and the page lists those questions in a warning.

Choose what the character sees

Once the briefing has content, the page shows the switch The character reads the learner's answers and document.

On — the character has read the learner's answers and document and may refer to them, as the other side of a proposal sent before a meeting would.
Off — the character sees neither. Use it for private preparation the other side would never see, such as an internal plan with negotiation limits. The learner is told the person they are about to talk to will not see it. An exam result still steers the character toward the learner's weak topics.

Until you change the switch, it shows as on, and the character reads the briefing without mentioning it.

The evaluator always reads the whole briefing. When the character did not, the evaluator is told so, and anything from the briefing that comes up in the conversation counts as the learner's own.

The choice is recorded when the learner submits the briefing, so changing the switch later does not change what the reports of earlier runs say.

Grade against it

When the simulation has a briefing, each feedback criterion's Judged on setting offers The learner's briefing beside The conversation, and beside The learner's debrief when the simulation asks for one. Tick one or more:

The learner's briefing alone — graded on what the learner handed in, for example the quality of an account plan.
The learner's briefing and The conversation — graded on both, and the evaluator names where they disagree, for example a conversation that offered a discount the learner's own plan ruled out.

Criteria start with the briefing unticked. A part the learner was asked for and did not give is not held against them. A criterion judged only on the briefing scores 0, with a note saying so, in a run with no briefing; if the simulation has no briefing, the editor warns you that every learner scores 0 on it. See Feedback Instructions.

Build it with Professor Cesura

Professor Cesura can include a briefing when it builds a simulation: questions for the learner, each answered in free text, and a document upload with its instructions, whether it is required, and whether the character reads it. It can also write criteria judged on the briefing, or on whether the conversation followed it. Upload instructions longer than 2,000 characters are shortened to fit. See Create a simulation with AI.

Translations

The briefing questions and the upload instructions are translated with the rest of the simulation — see Translate a simulation into another language.

Where the briefing appears

The evaluator reads the briefing when it grades the run. The report, the PDF and the space export do not show the briefing yet.